Tis But a Scratch
by TweakerWolf
Summary: Allison survived the stab wound from the Oni but isn't healed enough to go to Mexico with the others. She doesn't like being left behind, not one bit. And she's in for a big surprise when everyone gets back!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Based off the prompt floating around Tumblr, a gifset of Allison/Crystal Reed eating cereal with the caption saying that Allison is upset she has to stay home and heal from her stab wound while everyone else gets to go to Mexico.  
Gets kinda sad towards the end since Allison starts thinking about Victoria.

* * *

Allison sighed as Scott left with Isaac in tow. It… it was a little awkward, given what she had said before losing consciousness. But it was all true, she loved Scott and had to make sure that he knew it, even if she was getting closer to Isaac and Kira had Scott's attention. When she'd finally woken up in the hospital with her dad and Scott by her side, she had wanted to cry, and then the pain hit her, bringing actual tears. It had been a long process, healing in the hospital but now she was finally back at the apartment, almost as good as before. Except she wasn't quite healed yet… there were still some twinges and she couldn't move very fast, or pull her bow back so she wasn't allowed to go down to Mexico.

As Allison looked out the window, she saw Isaac wave before climbing onto the back of Scott's bike. A small smile came to her lips as she waved back. Her relationship with Isaac sure had come a long way since he'd first been turned, he had helped her and her dad out quite a bit. Now he was going to Mexico with everyone to save Derek.

"This is stupid," she mumbled to herself as she turned away.

"What's stupid?" Chris asked, coming into her room to check on her.

"I have to stay here! I want to help… I mean, Derek and I… we… things are still a little rough between us but… he's important to Scott and he's Isaac's original Alpha. He's going to think I don't care about him or something," Allison complained. As much as they had clashed in the previous months, she did care about him, their friendship was just complicated…

Chris sighed and hugged his daughter, "He knows you were attacked, you almost died. You're only Human, you don't heal like they do. I doubt he'll hold that against you. It's more important that you heal properly so you don't endanger yourself in the long run."

Allison sighed heavily, "Yea, I know… The doctors all told me about that. I'm practically all better, doesn't that count…?"

"Well to be honest, you know they are going to Calaveras' right? It isn't exactly… proper for Hunter families to challenge each other," Chris mentioned, despite Araya already having overstepped her bounds. "So even if you weren't hurt in the fight against the Nogitsune, we wouldn't be going to Mexico."

"Are you serious?" Allison huffed. So even if she hadn't messed up and gotten stabbed, she would still be stuck here alone? As much as it sucked to be hurt, at least it made a legitimate excuse for her. "I'm going to eat some breakfast… I just… I'm going to be so bored!"

"So can I trust you to stay inside? I have to go meet up with Deaton about something."

"Yea… I might not like it but Lydia will totally kick my ass if I show up in Mexico… She didn't go through all that for me to risk hurting myself further. Say hey to Deaton for me." Allison hugged her dad and went into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of cereal. Maybe she'd just sit on the couch and watch tv or something…. Just… wait for everyone to get back…

"This sucks," she mumbled to herself in between bites of her Cheerios, "Bet they're all down there having fun, probably kicking ass and what am I doing? Sitting on my butt eating cereal. Allison Argent, some great Hunter I am…" But her dad and Lydia were both right, if she ended up overexerting herself and then had to go back to the hospital, she'd only be worse off. Still… couldn't one of them have stayed behind to keep her company? Hell she'd even take Malia at this point, the one she knew the least… the two of them could have found something in common with each other right? She looked around the empty apartment, suddenly missing her mom. If Mom were still here, they'd go have a girl's day or something, just the two of them. Mom would know how to cheer her up. Allison sniffled, taking an aggressive bite of Cheerios, "Don't think about Mom… it will only make it worse. I can… I can do this," she whispered to herself.

As she finished her bowl and dropped it off in the sink, Allison went into her bathroom, pulling open the cabinet. After her mom had died, her and Dad had gone through everything and Allison had made sure to keep the few bottles of nail polish her mom used to love. She had half a mind to never ever use them, hold onto them forever. But then they'd dry up and go to waste; so instead, she'd save them for special occasions; times like this when she really missed her, or on her birthday. Besides, she knew the names of each polish, she could order more whenever she ran low. Carefully, Allison reached up and grabbed the shimmery purple color.

"I love you Mom," she whispered, wiping her eyes. She hurried back out to the couch, clearing a spot on the coffee table to perch her feet on. Then she started brushing the deep color onto her fingernails, telling Victoria all about how things have been since she died. By the time she finished both hands, Allison was feeling a lot better; even if she knew her mom was watching over her, it helped to talk as if she was sitting on the couch with her. A weight had been lifted from her chest and Allison leaned back against the cushions, eyes closing. Everyone would be back in a few days and life would go back to normal- or what passed as normal in Beacon Hills. She just had to take it one day at a time.


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: Continuation of previous chapter, Allison is there when the gang gets back from Mexico and they all explain how things went. And… surprise, Derek is young!

Someone wanted to see the next part of how things wanted to go, how exciting. I wasn't expecting to write a part 2 for this but I had a lot of fun with it!

* * *

Allison was pacing around the apartment- what was taking them so long?! She knew better than to call or text them, if something was going on, the noise could be deadly… Isaac said he'd message her if something came up, and she trusted him… But not hearing anything at all over the weekend… it was too much. It could mean that they'd been hurt. She had no problem admitting that after the first 24 hours, she'd _begged_ her dad to go for a drive down there, just to make sure! He said no though, was still saying no…

"Araya would've called me if she decided to kill Scott, I know she would've," he'd told her after she'd asked for the third time.

Of course she'd argued and tried to come up with other scenarios where things might've gone wrong but Chris reminded her to have faith. There were 3 Weres, a Kitsune, a Banshee, and a Stiles that went down there. On top of Derek being pretty capable himself and he'd be sure to aid them in their departure. Allison just didn't like that it had been all weekend and not a word… from anyone…

So when her phone finally did go off, she jumped and scrambled to get it out of her pocket, and of course she noticed that her dad was looking over, just as curious. "It's from Lydia."

 _We're all alive… um… it's been one hell of a weekend, meet us at the clinic? Bring your dad…_

"That doesn't sound good," Chris mumbled.

"No… it doesn't," Allison agreed. She grabbed her bag and raced out the front door, Chris right behind her.

As soon as they got to the clinic, they threw open the back door and rushed inside, looking around at the very ragged (and dusty) group. Immediately Allison went to Isaac, looking him over for injuries, even though she knew they'd be healed by now. Once he assured her that he was fine, she moved onto Lydia.

"I'm fine, really," the red-head told her, eyes on the medical table. Her weekend had been crappy but she hadn't been physically harmed… Derek on the other hand- who knew what he'd been through in the past couple of weeks.

"What happened? Why was there radio silence for the whole weekend?! Araya couldn't have been that hard to negotiate with."

"Um, Allison… I think _he_ might have something to do with it," Chris mumbled, looking at the boy on the table. God… he was just like he remembered all those years ago… what had happened to Derek?

"Who's that? Wait, I thought you guys went to save Derek, where's Derek? I don't understand…"

"That… um actually, yea, that is Derek," Stiles told her, look of disbelief in his eyes. "Now before you say anything- we found him like that! Araya never actually had him… It's… a long fucking story…"

Deaton, who'd been bent over Derek's unconscious body, turned and looked at the group, "Then I suggest you start talking. The more I know… the better I might be able to help him."

"Right so… where to start?" Stiles asked with a slight chuckle, a little nervous about actually telling them the details of the disastrous trip. How did he explain a 16 year old Derek who'd been taken by Kate... Okay, it was mainly because of Kate that he didn't want to start talking. Not that he had any clue about Derek on top of that...

Allison stared at the kid on the table, he was the same age as the rest of them! That couldn't be Derek, it wasn't possible. What… what kind of trouble had Derek gotten into? And how had the others gotten him out of it?

Lydia cleared her throat, she had no problem telling the truth… or at least starting it. "So, Stiles and I go into the club, Malia, Kira, Scott, and Isaac all went in ahead of us, all went in at different times, blended in. We dropped the bullet casing at the bar, letting Severo know what we were there for and we were taken to Araya, in one of the offices. Of course, we started our bargaining, we put the money on the table but she didn't accept it… I don't want to say that she threatened us but… well, everyone was taking out their guns and she made a comment about how it really wasn't smart to come alone…"

"She was going to hurt you two? She knows you're Human right?!" She glared at her dad- he'd promised that Araya wouldn't have hurt them since they weren't Weres. She might be strict like Gerard but she wasn't completely heartless like him. They did believe in the Code unlike the old bastard… That was the only reason why her dad had thought it was safe for them all to go down there in the first place!

"She was… being Araya, testing them. She's offended that two teenagers just come to her place of business and put money on the table, trying to buy her. I told you that she'd want to know what the two of you were made of," Chris reminded them all. Of course it had been risky but he'd told them everything he knew about the way Araya ran her group of Hunters. As long as they didn't make any stupid moves, they could've bluffed their way out of it… but judging by the guilty looks that everyone shared, he assumed the situation only got worse. He should've gone with them... but he knew that if he'd gone, there was no way he could keep Allison home. So now he just had to hope that he wasn't about to get another visit from Araya any time soon.

"Yea, well I told her that we didn't come alone! And of course she knew that it meant we had our Pack with us…"

"She doesn't like Wolves in her home, I told-"

"I know what you told us, but we weren't about to let Lydia and Stiles walk in there alone. We thought it was better if we were inside. We weren't going to kill anyone, all of us were under control," Scott interrupted.

"I um, can't really say what happened then… all I know is that stuff went on and then Scott came over the radio?" Lydia added on, waiting for one of the others to start talking.

"We noticed that the guards were looking around but we continued to try and blend in, but they found us… so we defended ourselves," Malia filled in. "Kira, Isaac, and I took out the guards around the dance floor and Scott took out the guys in the hall."

"And that was when I told Stiles to take 10 grand off the table."

Stiles smirked a bit before his look turned sour, "I told Araya that we hadn't brought a Wolf into her home, we'd brought an Alpha…"

"And that's when things really turned nasty, right?" Chris guessed.

All of them nodded, Scott choosing to tell the next part. "She told Severo to show us how the Calaveras negotiate… apparently they had some sort of ventilation system set up, the halls just filled up with a mist of Wolfsbane… Malia, Isaac, and I went down instantly… Kira didn't seem affected though, which is great to know but one of the Hunters caught her off guard and managed to knock her out before she could do anything. Araya came over then and told me that I'd underestimated her, and I did… I just… I wanted to save Derek- I'm the Alpha now, I needed to do something…"

"What did she do once she had all of you guys? Don't you try to lie and say that she just wanted to talk!" Allison looked around the room, furious. She should've gone with them! She would've been able to help keep an eye out for such obvious traps, she would've been immune to the Wolfsbane like Kira… A part of her understood that Araya was an old-fashioned Hunter, one that lived and died by the Code, but the larger part of her mind… these were her friends and the Hunter had threatened them! Scott and the rest had done nothing wrong! The only one that might've been in danger because of the Code was Malia because she had blue eyes, but if they knew the truth about her circumstances… they might've let her go… She didn't have to react so harshly when they'd only been trying to get a Packmate back! Surely Araya had to understand that?!

"She did want to talk… but… she just wasn't nice about it," Lydia admitted. "I was separated from the others after that, I really don't know what happened to them but I got to have a fun conversation with Araya for awhile. She… she tested me… asking which of her guards was about to die… I-I don't know what would've happened if I had failed her test. Honestly I have no idea how I even managed to concentrate long enough to actually listen to the whispers- I barely had time to look at him before she… she threw a knife into his chest. She claimed it was because he stole from her but I… I don't know, she might've just been testing me, seeing the limits of my powers…" Lydia went quiet then, not wanting to continue.

"I do hope this is getting to Derek, sometime soon?" Deaton asked, still examining the now 16 year old Derek. He didn't want to come across as indifferent to Lydia's emotional trauma but Derek needed his attention more than she did. There was nothing he could really do for the emotional part of all this anyways, he was a vet.

Allison went to her friend, hugging her close. Lydia didn't ask to be surrounded by death… it wasn't easy to watch someone die, especially not when you could hear it coming. Lydia didn't deserve this, hadn't deserved any of it. No matter how this story ended, she and her father were going down to Mexico, Araya needed to know that how she ran things was not okay!

"Actually, yea, that's um, really the huge important part, what's coming up next…" Stiles admitted, running a hand through his hair.

"They took me out of the holding cell, away from the others, and shackled me to a chair in one of the offices. That was when they brought Lydia in and shackled her to the one next to me… I'm not… I still have no idea why they did this… um, it's…"

"She wanted to know what kind of Alpha you were. She was asking me just before she brought me back inside," Lydia whispered, holding onto Allison.

"So that's what she meant when she said it was a test?" Kira asked.

"Yea, I guess so…"

Chris sighed, worried, "What did this test consist of Scott?"

"They brought Kira in and told her that whenever she was asked, she was to electrocute me via the dial in front of her. If she refused, Severo would electrocute Lydia instead and-"

"WHAT?! She had no idea if Banshees have healing abilities or not! She had no right to threaten her like that, or you Scott, none of you have done anything wrong!"

"Allison, please, let them finish."

"Dad!"

"No, he's right, Araya doesn't know anything about me apart from rumors and gossip… she wanted to see for herself. It was fucked up but, if any of the rumors about being a True Alpha were, well true, then she had to know that I wouldn't have let Lydia get hurt."

"Well no offense to Kira but how could she know that Kira would listen?! It's hardly a mistake that she picked Kira as the one to do the electrocuting, she must've known that you two were close, or else she would've picked Stiles, Isaac… do you really think it was by chance that she picked someone that likes you, as more than just a Packmate?"

"I think that was also a part of the test, not only to see if I'd sacrifice myself for a Packmate, but if I could get my Betas to listen. I don't know if she knew that Kira's a Kitsune or not, I can't imagine that she _didn't_ know but… she'd still be considered my Beta, she's Pack. I think that was why she picked Kira and not Isaac or Malia. Them I could just order around, but Kira I couldn't. Not that I would've anyways, I'm not that kind of Alpha… She probably knew that Kira would of course refuse to hurt me, no real friend is just going to be willing to push the button."

"I didn't want Lydia to get hurt, I didn't!" Kira called out, hands balled up near her chest.

Allison grimaced and looked down at the floor, "I didn't mean… I know that it would've been hard, I just meant that… Araya specifically picked someone that would have a hard time hurting Scott, which meant that she was putting Lydia in real danger of being electrocuted. I was focusing more on how _she_ was absolutely willing to kill Lydia, someone who was never in violation of the Code, just to test Scott. Of course it would've been hard, you're friends with both of them."

"I convinced her that she had to do it, I mean… I'm a Were. Sure, electricity is kinda one of our weaknesses but Araya wasn't going to flat out kill me, I knew I could handle a few jolts. Lydia couldn't. It was that simple, there was no question in my mind."

"What did Araya want to know? Surely she set up this little test with some kind of point, right?" Chris asked.

"Okay well, I forgot to mention, it was before this that we had figured out that Araya didn't have Derek, she never had Derek. This test was her way of helping me figure out who did take him."

"She could've just told you!"

"Hunters don't like Wolves, she wasn't just going to trade information with me, she'd lose her credibility. And also… I wouldn't have believed her if she just told me, I needed to put the pieces together myself. Anyways, I um, got shocked a few times and she gave me some really confusing hints but… in the end, it all fell into place. She told me where to find Derek and wished me luck in getting him back. She also warned me that as soon as I turn an innocent, she'll be coming to hunt me down… so that's her way of saying she'll be keeping an eye on me I guess… Not that I really have plans to just turn anyone, like, I have enough on my plate."

"So… she played this stupid game with you, _hurt_ you, and then after you guessed at who really had Derek, she let you go?"

"Yea, told us that we'd find him in an old temple, that she'd sent others there and none had come back. She figured that if I was so loyal to Derek I might as well risk my neck for him instead of her risking her men- not that she was doing it for Derek mind you… She was after… the person that took him."

"Scott," Chris sighed, "Who did this to Derek? Who has the kind of magic to, to… de-age someone?!"

"Yes, I would like to know that as well," Deaton tacked on, just a bit impatiently.

The Alpha sighed wearily and looked down at the floor, shuffling his feet, "That was actually why we wanted you here to Mr. Argent… it turns out that um… well…"

"Your psychotic sister Kate isn't dead!" Stiles shouted out, unable to take it anymore. "She came here, kidnapped Derek, framed the Calaveras because she wanted us to kill them or something, and she had Derek locked up in some… tomb…"

"Yea, when Braeden and I found him, he was just… young. He didn't seem to recognize us but he wasn't conscious for long either…"

Now it was Lydia's turn to support Allison as the brunette went weak in the knees. Aunt Kate was still alive? No… she'd seen Peter rip out her throat! Watched her fall and bleed out on the floor of that burned down house. She'd gone to the funeral!

"My sister is dead, Scott."

"No… she isn't…"

"Did you see her for yourself? Or just Araya's word? She didn't say anything to me! If she knew my sister was alive, she would've told me!"

"I'm sorry… Kate… Remember how you said that you could potentially be turned by a scratch, if it went deep enough? Peter was an Alpha at the time and well… ripping out a throat is plenty deep. Apparently it was enough to turn her. So they took her, swapped out her body I guess-"

"They wanted her to kill herself, just like how Gerard made Mom kill herself! I can't believe I fell for the same bigoted crap! You aren't monsters just because you aren't strictly Human anymore! Aunt Kate made mistakes but she made them as a Hunter, not as a Were! They had no right to try and make her kill herself, she didn't even have a chance to break the Code!"

"Allison… the Code only protects those that are born as Weres or were regular Humans, turned by someone. Hunters… It's an honor thing- they don't believe that a Hunter can remain a Hunter if they aren't Human. Even if they've never actually killed anyone, they got beat by a Were and that meant they weren't fit to be a Hunter anymore- and we don't just retire like normal people."

"That's so stupid!"

"And that's why we have our own Code now, remember? But it's only the two of us, you can't expect us to change the world- these traditions are centuries old. They aren't going to care if we changed our Code, even if our last name is Argent. As far as they are concerned, we're a disgrace now. Victoria got Bitten… Gerard sold everyone out for his own agenda and voluntarily wanted the Bite… Kate was killed by a Were, or… apparently she was turned into a Were… and we forsake the old Code for a new one. Our name means less than what it used to."

Allison buried her face in Lydia's hair again, not wanting to admit that her dad was right, Aunt Kate could be saved still! If Scott could overcome his Wolf and learn control, then Aunt Kate could too!

"So Derek was found in a tomb of sorts? Anything you can tell me about it?"

"Just that there was a lot of Wolfsbane, and he was sealed behind a wall that had this jaguar god dude on it… Um… the temple belonged to the Nagual, Braeden said they were-"

"Werejaguars," Deaton finished for him. He started musing aloud, "Kate didn't become a Wolf, she because a Jaguar instead… and she escaped Mexico, came here to kidnap Derek and then went back to Mexico to the temple…"

"I have no idea how she even got close to the temple, let alone got Derek inside… something was living there, something big and really strong," Scott murmured.

"Yea, smelled like death too," Malia added on, recalling their night in the desert.

"That doesn't matter now, you can fix Derek right?" Allison asked. They went through all this trouble to save him, so Deaton had to have answers. "Once he's back to himself, he can tell us what Aunt Kate wants, right? Don't tell me that he's sick, or dying… he can't be dying…" Allison couldn't handle any more pain like that, even if she and Derek weren't the closest, he didn't deserve to die.

"I have no idea… I've never seen anything like this before…"

Just then, Derek groaned and opened his eyes, shifting weakly on the table. He looked around and started to panic, not recognizing anyone around him, so he ran, before anyone could gather enough sense to try and stop him.

"This is not how I wanted to spend my day," Chris muttered. Not only was Kate alive, she had been turned into a creature he knew nothing about, had no idea how to hunt… but she'd also kidnapped and somehow de-aged Derek for unknown purposes. Chris just hoped that it meant she was still somewhat like her old self… She wouldn't have come for Derek otherwise unless she remembered him. Hopefully. They would worry about that later though, for now, they had to get Derek squirreled away somewhere safe until they could figure all of this out. And he hoped Allison would be okay after all of this.


End file.
